Often when I meet other artists, they will reveal that their mother or father, or a grandparent is also an artist.  That is not the case with me, although my grandfather could draw horses really well for some reason.  He was a carpenter who once built all the bread boxes for The Columbus Baking Co. in Syracuse.

We are all creative types, though, the kind of people who like working with our hands/making things.

My grandmother did fine crochet work, as I mentioned before – she won first place at the New York State Fair every year in the senior citizen’s category.  She would spend the entire year creating a bedspread or tablecloth, like hours and hours of work, and if she made a mistake, she would remove three months of work just to make it right.

My mother can knit and crochet too, and as I mentioned before, she creates jewelry.  My little sister has an interior decorating business, which includes furniture refinishing.  My older sister is a kinesthetic artist – she is a gymnast who at fifty something can still rock a round-off/back handspring/back summy tumbling pass, as well as glide kip into giant swings on the uneven parallel bars.

My dad’s art is his garden.  Every year that thing produces buckets of produce – cukes, tomatoes of all varieties, peppers, onions, garlic, lettuce, eggplant, zucchini….etc., etc., etc.!!!

In addition, he has landscaped the homestead in DeWitt, NY with English walnut trees that have literally taken over the back yard, as well as a pear tree, apple tree, mulberry tree and I can’t remember what else.

The harvest is often given away because there is such a surplus.  The real fun begins when he and Mom, and Sophie make tomato sauce and salsa, and all sorts of other things that exist in a foodie’s paradise – the gift that keeps on giving, so to speak.

So here are some pictures of said garden.  Dad is not on social media nor has he ever attempted to use a computer, so it is fun to know that Vasil S. Tashkovski does exist in cyberspace.

And if the world ever starts to implode, and you wish to seek refuge with our family and these fresh vegetables, the secret word into our creative “speak-easy” is a compliment (as in, wow, this is the best garden in town!).  Lol-so true. <3